Lazy landlord - what can I do?

Fang_3

Hi all,

I rented a room in a house (landlord lives elsewhere) for seven months at the start November. When we viewed the house it was alright, nothing seemed particularly bad but it did need a good clean, and the landlord said that this would be done by the time we moved in. Moved in a week later, and it hadn't. We were also told that the current housemate was a lovely man who spent weekends away and was leaving in a few weeks to move abroad, so we didn't have a problem moving in. The landlord also told us that there was an active phoneline and that he'd have internet reconnected before Christmas. He also said that the kitchen and bathroom would be replaced, and the house would be given a fresh lick of paint at the same time when we were at home for Christmas.

None of that happened. It still hasn't. It took the three of us a full weekend, and nearly £70 to get the house into a clean state. We made a list of all the snags in the house that needed fixing and gave a copy to the landlord. This included the bathroom being much more disgusting than we first thought. For instance there was no grouting so the water from the shower was running down and soaking into the floorboards below the bath and rotting away; there was a mushroom growing out of the bath panel; an infestation of flies coming from somewhere; the bath taps not working unless you unscrewed the showerhead and did a bloody raindance; the sink hot water tap running constantly and not being able to turn it off for more than two minutes.

In the kitchen there was a hole in the wall behind the hob cover, and a hole around a pipe into the washing machine that all sorts would crawl through; the cooker would randomly stop working with no gas coming through often; the ceiling was wooden and didn't seem to be attached to anything at all and would move if touched, which was quite often as it was very low.

Our bedrooms were completely disgusting, and required days of cleaning that he said would be done, but wasn't.

The tenant in the house when we moved in wasn't any better. He didn't leave, despite promising to each week, and was absolutely disgusting to live with. He is an alcoholic, who would get in from work at about 6pm, then go to the pub, drink until closing time, go and get a take away on the way home, stumble in making as much noise as possible, throw the take away about the kitchen or living room, drink more, order another take away, and then go to bed at about 4am. He'd then get up at about 7am and the spend over an hour in the bathroom loudly vomiting and making us all late. My room was downstairs and as a result of this I was woken up nearly every night and ended up actually moving home for the most part of the tenancy and commuting to uni and just staying in the house two nights a week. The landlord was absolutely no help.

The worst problem was the central heating. It would often just stop working for no reason, this combined with the many drafts and zero insulation meant that winter was very cold. Four weeks ago we were left with no heating for over a week, and no oven as the gas wouldn't come through. Also there were no gas safety certificates, despite requesting them verbally. It was at this point that I decided to leave.

All of these problems were reported within the first week. To date the only thing to be fixed has been the taps in MARCH.

I asked the landlord if I could cut my tenancy short citing a need to move home urgently. He agreed and adjusted my rent for the remaining month accordingly and I moved out. This was two weeks ago and I haven't heard a thing from him. We arranged to do the inspection on the Monday after I left, but he didn't turn up, and he has not been to collect the keys from the house, or my forwarding address for my deposit. He has been in contact with my old housemates, but is seemingly ignoring my calls and texts.

I'm pretty sure that he hasn't protected my deposit as the law states that he should and I think he may have spent it and doesn't have the money to give it back to me. I'd just like advice on how to deal with this please? He is the laziest landlord ever but he doesn't seem like an intentionally bad guy.

BitterAndTwisted

He is an intentionally bad guy because he rented you your room by telling you a pack of lies in order to encourage you to take it. He never intended to make any of the improvements and probably never shall.

Now, did you sign a tenancy agreement and whereabouts in the country was this property? If you did sign an agreement what was it called and did the landlord ever confirm receipt of your deposit or give you any information about which deposit protection scheme it was held in?

Fang_3

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

He is an intentionally bad guy because he rented you your room by telling you a pack of lies in order to encourage you to take it. He never intended to make any of the improvements and probably never shall.

Now, did you sign a tenancy agreement and whereabouts in the country was this property? If you did sign an agreement what was it called and did the landlord ever confirm receipt of your deposit or give you any information about which deposit protection scheme it was held in?

Hi, thank you for responding. I see what you mean. I moved in with a friend and we were very desperate to find somewhere else, as we'd both moved out of hellish environments (I moved out of a stunning apartment after a flatmate and his friends threatened me with a knife and I had to call the police, who turned up armed) and my friend was living with her ex, so we both were just glad to find somewhere with enough rooms together. I definitely think he took advantage of that situation.

I did sign a tenancy agreement - it says on it that it's a 'Joint Tenancy Agreemeent for an assured shorthold tenancy'. It's in North West England. Is that specific enough? I don't want to give away the exact location in case it's necessary, you never know who's reading.

He never gave me a receipt for my deposit, but it was paid over the first two months of the tenancy, so these rent payments are more. He also never gave me any notice of the DPS he should've used, and when I asked about it he gave his usual answer to questions he didn't want to answer. Very vague but sounded plausible if you get what I mean. I don't know if it's of any use, but he also was very lax about collecting rent. He wouldn't allow it to be paid by DD and said he would collect either cash or cheque. He very rarely collected the rent on time, and when chased up would say he was coming but then didn't turn up and then would ask if I would pay it into his account. So some months he wouldn't get the rent until three weeks after it was due, despite it being waiting for him.

Thanks again.

BitterAndTwisted

If he was that flaky and unreliable about collecting the rent and dealing with the deposit properly I hope he was just as flaky about drawing up the tenancy agreement. So, I take it that he's released you from your contract a couple of weeks early if you signed a seven-monther at the beginning of November, am I right?

How much was the deposit and is there any mention of the deposit amount in your tenancy agreement?

Fang_3

He has yes, three weeks early. Verbally and then he confirmed it via text message. The agreement states 'To pay the landlord £260 as form of refundable deposit. This is to be returned on completion and satisfaction by the Landlord on all points listed.'

Further down it also states: All deposits to be re-funded by the Landlord only after the Tenant has vacated the premises and providing the Tenant has adhered to the terms and conditions of this agreement.'

Will this affect anything given that he released me from the contract?

MonkeySaving?

Did you eat the mushroom?

Fang_3

MonkeySaving? wrote: »

Did you eat the mushroom?

Ha! No we hacked it off weekly, and then it came back. Was quite attached to it by the time I moved out.

BitterAndTwisted

Well, with a conventional, professional landlord there would have been formal confirmation of them releasing your from your contractual obligations in writing but from how you've described this one I think we can infer that he is not one of those and can also assume that your deposit may not be forthcoming without some pressure being brought to bear.

Write to the landlord at the address quoted on the contact requesting the return of your deposit in full to whichever address for yourself you put in your letter. Send two copies by first class post from two different post offices and retain proof of postage and retain a copy of the document for your own records.

Fang_3

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Well, with a conventional, professional landlord there would have been formal confirmation of them releasing your from your contractual obligations in writing but from how you've described this one I think we can infer that he is not one of those and can also assume that your deposit may not be forthcoming without some pressure being brought to bear.

Write to the landlord at the address quoted on the contact requesting the return of your deposit in full to whichever address for yourself you put in your letter. Send two copies by first class post from two different post offices and retain proof of postage and retain a copy of the document for your own records.

Thank you so much for your help. I'll type up the letter now and have them posted on Monday. I will update you on my progress (if any).:)

Fire_Fox

Sounds like a complete shyster who'd 'benefit' from a visit from Environmental Health and a polite call to the inland revenue. Do you have any evidence of anything you paid - a rent book or receipts? Did you serve your notice to quit in writing? I would suggest you either use recorded delivery or, if you think he will not sign for your letters, normal mail from two different post offices getting a free certificate of posting each time. From now on your record keeping needs to be impeccable as this could end up in the small claims court (easy and inexpensive so don't panic).

Fang_3

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Sounds like a complete shyster who'd 'benefit' from a visit from Environmental Health and a polite call to the inland revenue. Do you have any evidence of anything you paid - a rent book or receipts? Did you serve your notice to quit in writing? I would suggest you either use recorded delivery or, if you think he will not sign for your letters, normal mail from two different post offices getting a free certificate of posting each time. From now on your record keeping needs to be impeccable as this could end up in the small claims court (easy and inexpensive so don't panic).

I don't have a rent book, but I do have reciepts of when I paid cash into his account at the bank, or when cheques were cashed in his account. I have confirmation from him in a text message acknowledging that I would be moving out in May, if that counts?

I've just thought that he may not be in the property that is listed on the contract. He moved back to his parent's some time this year, but we don't have that address.

I actually worked out how long I've actually spent in the house and it comes to fewer than 100 days. Shocking.